Retweets, Likes, & Shares — Lessons from the Kings of Social Media
- Alex Balansay
- Oct 19, 2017
- 3 min read
(Article originally published on LinkedIn)
Whether it's teenage boys getting free nuggets or men free-falling from space, when your brand's social media posts make national news headlines, you know you're doing something right. Well, most of the time....
Social media usage is higher than ever and when used effectively, businesses can leverage the medium to boost their marketing efforts and increase their business. With a combined user base of nearly 3 billion, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are some of the top social media platforms in the world — and are among the most valuable to marketers. Here are the brands that are dominating these platforms and the lessons they demonstrate to any company trying to boost their social media.
Red Bull: The King of Viral Videos
The largest of all social media platforms with a user base of 1.9 billion, Facebook is one of the most effective platforms for reaching potential customers. Facebook is generally a very visual platform and as such, brands that play to this nature tend to see the most success.
With 48.5 million followers on Facebook, Red Bull is dominating this tactic through inbound marketing. Red Bull regularly posts extreme sports videos that often reach millions of views and spread through the viral nature of Facebook. Unlike Twitter (little video integration) and Instagram (mobile-centric, not optimized for full-screen videos), Facebook is the optimal platform for video sharing and Red Bull uses this to their advantage, often cross-promoting their popular YouTube channel as well.
While Red Bull's content strategy is effective at increasing brand name recognition through its videos, the trouble is that it can be difficult to track how many of these viewers actually turn into customers. Fortunately, Facebook's ad system allows companies to track user interaction with their promoted posts and offer call-to-action (CTA) buttons such as 'Buy Now' to track conversion rates.
Wendy's: Queen of Witty Words
Popular with teenagers and heads-of-state alike, Twitter can also be a great platform for reaching consumers.
The key to success on Twitter is developing a brand persona, which fast-food chain Wendy's has done very effectively.
Whether it's calling out other fast-food chains or getting into rap battles, Wendy's is well-known for their witty tweets that generate a lot of buzz on both social media and even national news. Take the infamous Nugget Boy for example, whose quest for a year-supply of free chicken nuggets led to the most retweeted post of all time with over 3.4 million. All of this media attention acted as free publicity for Wendy's and cemented the brand as a pop culture icon.
REI: King of Outdoor Wanderlust
Seeing 80 million photos and 3.5 billion likes generated daily, Instagram leads the way as one of the platforms receiving the most engagement. As it has always been a platform focused on user-generated photos, creating and curating quality visual content is essential to a brand's success.
One brand that does this particularly effectively is REI. With 1.7 million followers, REI doesn't have the largest brand following on Instagram but it utilizes a variety of strategies that help create a highly engaged following which it then guides back to purchasing their products.
A typical post on REI's Instagram will feature a scene of outdoor adventure, inspiring users to get outdoors and use equipment that, coincidentally, REI happens to sell. With the recent updates to Instagram, REI has taken this tactic a step further by even allowing users to click on a product featured in a photo to see the price, which they can then purchase from REI's own website.
REI is also one of the companies pioneering user-created content, regularly reposting users' photos and encouraging users to use their popular hashtags such as #optoutside and #rei1440project. This helps create a community with its consumers and leads to a more personal, engaged relationship.
Paid Social & Tips for a Business
Of course, creating quality content on social media is pointless if none of it is seen by consumers. Without boosting or promoting, the organic reach of a post is only 10% of the audience following. For this reason, it is essential that companies create effective social media ads and pay for increased exposure to reach a larger audience.
As traditional media such as print and radio begin to decline and social media continues to rise, it is essential that companies invest more in their social media marketing by creating teams of talented marketers and content creators.
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